The Democratic Pivot

[TexasTowelie]

by David Dayen


A handful of people I know in Washington are adamant that there will be a Build Back Better Act signed by the president in the neighborhood of $1.5 to $1.75 trillion, which was the top level for Joe Manchin all along. I’ve found that trying to discover what underlies this confidence is kind of impenetrable, but if you’re wondering why you’ve seen a flurry of articles lately (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and right here at the Prospect), that’s your answer.

I will admit to having some skepticism about this. It’s not as if Manchin has been unclear about his intentions. While he has expressed a willingness to talk, literally nothing has happened in the month since he rejected the previous bill. Anything new would start from a “clean sheet of paper,” Manchin told reporters last week. Meanwhile, you can find plenty of stories from more pessimistic sources, saying that no process on Build Back Better will bear fruit anytime soon, and that moving on to bipartisan efforts to rack up some wins would be preferable.

So while I appreciate the take industry’s continuing efforts to demand that someone, anyone give Manchin what he wants, I cannot muster up the faith required to enlist in that effort. There’s no harm in assembling some collection of measures that adhere to his red lines and seeing what he says. I imagine it would include some balanced (some would say imbalanced) version of energy incentives, the universal pre-K program Manchin implemented in West Virginia, and maybe an extension of the Obamacare exchange subsidy fix set to expire in 2022, funded by whatever tax increases and prescription drug price curbs he’s comfortable with that can also get by Kyrsten Sinema, and with whatever revenues beyond that going to deficit reduction.

But making BBB the only item under consideration in Congress for the second half of 2021 did the Democrats no favor. To the contrary, it reinforced a perception of Biden and the Democrats’ impotence and a sense that they’re out of touch. A January CBS poll revealed that Biden has failed to make the sale that BBB would reduce burdens on the biggest drivers of cost of living and therefore stands as an inflation-fighting bill. According to the poll, Biden would regain support among those who currently disapprove of him by a nearly 2-to-1 margin if he “gets inflation down,” but passing BBB would barely move the needle at all.

Read more: https://prospect.org/politics/democratic-pivot-build-back-better/
(American Prospect)